Qantas's chief executive, Alan Joyce, has described the last year as challenging but a "pivotal one" in which the airline signed an extensive alliance with Emirates.

(The Emirates alliance) is going to secure jobs for Qantas.

Union officials said before the annual meeting in Canberra on Friday that management action, which included slashing 2800 jobs over the past years, had undermined the airline's future.

But Mr Joyce told shareholders that the airline now had "a platform that will turn around" its loss-making international operations. It included the proposed alliance with Emirates, which is awaiting approval from the competition regulator.

He said the proposed alliance was "not about handing passengers to Emirates" but opening opportunities for Qantas to grow in the longer term.

"I do not believe ... this is going to be a risk to employees at all," he said of the Emirates alliance. "This is going to secure jobs for Qantas."

'No alternative' to grounding fleet

He also touched on the industrial disputes last year, which led him to take the unprecedented step of grounding Qantas's entire fleet.

"Under the threat of another 12 months of industrial action - a 'slow bake' - we responded in the only way available to us," he said.

Mr Joyce also said the alliance with Emirates would "revitalise" Qantas's international network on the kangaroo route to Europe.

He did not provide any update on trading conditions, nor touch in his opening remarks to the AGM on Virgin Australia's bids this week for control of Tiger Australia and regional airline Skywest.

So far on Friday, the meeting has been a mild mannered affair compared with the high drama at the AGM in Sydney last year. Shareholders number fewer than 200 at the AGM.

Dividend 'as soon as possible'

Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford said the airline will begin paying dividends again as soon as possible.

Qantas shareholders have not received any dividend payments for the past three years as the airline struggles with higher fuel prices and losses at its international arm.